| "Cracked Actor" | |
|---|---|
| Song byDavid Bowie | |
| from the albumAladdin Sane | |
| Released | 19 April 1973 (1973-04-19)[a] |
| Recorded | January 1973 |
| Studio | Trident, London |
| Genre | |
| Length | 2:56 |
| Label | RCA |
| Songwriter | David Bowie |
| Producers | Ken Scott, David Bowie |
"Cracked Actor" is a song by the English musicianDavid Bowie, released on his sixth studio albumAladdin Sane (1973). The track was also issued as a single in Eastern Europe byRCA Records in June that year. The song was written during Bowie's stay in Los Angeles during the American leg of theZiggy Stardust Tour in October 1972. Co-produced by Bowie andKen Scott, it was recorded in January 1973 atTrident Studios in London with his backing bandthe Spiders from Mars – comprisingMick Ronson,Trevor Bolder andWoody Woodmansey. Ahard rock song primarily led by guitar, the song describes an agingHollywood star's encounter with aprostitute, featuring many allusions to sex and drugs.
Bowie performed the song frequently. For his 1974Diamond Dogs Tour, he performed it wearing sunglasses and holding a skull, which he would proceed toFrench kiss. His biographers have compared the routine toHamlet. Performances from this tour have appeared on the live albumsDavid Live (1974) andCracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74) (2017). Bowie revived the skull-and-sunglasses routine for the 1983Serious Moonlight Tour, a performance of which appears in the concert videoSerious Moonlight (1984). "Cracked Actor" provided the name for a 1975documentary of the same name, directed byAlan Yentob. It is notable for showing Bowie's declining mental state during this period, due to his growingcocaine addiction.
With the release of his albumThe Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and his performance of "Starman" on the BBC television programmeTop of the Pops in early July 1972,David Bowie was launched to stardom.[5] To support the album, Bowie embarked on theZiggy Stardust Tour in both the UK and the US.[6][7] He composed most of the tracks for the follow-up record on the road during the US tour in late 1972.[8] Because of this, many of the tracks were influenced by America, and his perceptions of the country.[9]
In October 1972, Bowie and an entourage of 46 people (includingMike Garson's family andIggy Pop) stayed atthe Beverly Hills Hotel onSunset Boulevard in Los Angeles for a week.[b][12][13] The entourage spent time at clubs and the hotel pool, accumulating a $20,000 hotel bill by the time they departed. "Cracked Actor" was written during this stay. It was primarily inspired by the numerous barely-teenage prostitutes and drugs that Bowie witnessed on Sunset Boulevard.[12][13] According to authorPeter Doggett, the song encompassed "three layers of prostitution" on the Boulevard: "offering money for sex; sex for drugs; worship for fame." Regarding the Boulevard's clients, Bowie recalled: "They were mostly older producer types, quite strange looking, quite charming, but thoroughly unreal."[14]
"Cracked Actor" was recorded atTrident Studios in London in January 1973, following the conclusion of the American tour and a series of Christmas concerts in England and Scotland.[15][16] Like the rest of its parent album, the song was co-produced by Bowie andKen Scott and featured Bowie's backing bandthe Spiders from Mars – comprising guitaristMick Ronson, bassistTrevor Bolder and drummerWoody Woodmansey.[13][17]
"Cracked Actor" has been described ashard rock andglam rock.[18][19] The verses are in bothA major andA minor, while thechoruses are inG major. The track is primarily led by Ronson on guitar, who plays with loads offeedback; his performance is described by Pegg as "dirty blues".[13][20]
Lyrically, "Cracked Actor" is about an agingHollywood star in an encounter with aprostitute, the chorus including various allusions to sex and drugs:[20]
Rolling Stone suggested that Bowie's goal was "to strip the subject of his validity, as he has done with the rocker, as a step towards a re-definition of these roles and his own inhabiting of them".[21] HoweverNME writersRoy Carr andCharles Shaar Murray considered that the song "reveals little else except that Bowie's capabilities with amouth-harp are decidedly limited".[22] Some commentators have notedthe Velvet Underground'sLou Reed as an influence,[23] with biographer Paul Trynka highlighting the line "since he pinned you baby" as a "straight lift" from Reed.[12]
"Cracked Actor" was released on 19 April 1973[a] on Bowie's sixth studio albumAladdin Sane, sequenced as the fifth track—the final on side one of the original LP[24]—between "Panic in Detroit" and "Time".[25] Each track was ascribed a location on the album label to indicate where it was written or took its inspiration; "Cracked Actor" was ascribed toLos Angeles, California.[24][26] Following its release onAladdin Sane, "Cracked Actor" was issued as Bowie's first single for the Russian market, backed with "John, I'm Only Dancing". The timing was supposedly to cash in on publicity emanating from his trip through Eastern Europe on theTrans-Siberian Railway in April–May 1973, shortly before his finalZiggy Stardust tour in the UK.
"Cracked Actor" was performed live throughout the 1973 tour.[20] A recording from the performance at theHammersmith Odeon, London, on 3 July 1973 was released onZiggy Stardust: The Motion Picture.[27] For Bowie's 1974Diamond Dogs Tour, he would performed the song wearing sunglasses and holding a skull (à laHamlet), which he would then proceed toFrench kiss.[13][20][28] Biographer Nicholas Pegg has given praise to the routine, stating: "not only did the Yorick affectation provide instant shorthand for everything actorish, but it reinforced the song's terror of ephemerality with Hamlet's own: 'let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come.'"[20] Performances from this tour were released onDavid Live (1974) andCracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74) (2017),[29][30] as well as the 1989 box setSound + Vision.[31]
In 1983, Bowie revived the song and the sunglasses-and-skull routine for hisSerious Moonlight Tour.[20] Biographer Chris O'Leary found these performances to be subpar, finding "he came off as an animatronicDisneyland exhibit."[13] A performance recorded on 12 September 1983 was included on the live albumSerious Moonlight (Live '83), which was part of the 2018 box setLoving the Alien (1983–1988)[32] and was released separately the following year. The filmed performance appears on the concert videoSerious Moonlight (1984).[33] The song was performed live at theBBC Radio Theatre,Portland Place, London on 27 June 2000. This recording appeared on the limited edition bonus disk ofBowie at the Beeb.[34]
"Cracked Actor" provided its name to adocumentary chronicling Bowie's life in Los Angeles,[13] using a mixture of sequences filmed in limousines, hotels and concert footage, most of which was taken from a show there atUniversal Amphitheatre on 2 September 1974. Directed byAlan Yentob and broadcast in the UK on 26 January 1975, the documentary is notable for showing Bowie's declining mental state during this period because of his growingcocaine addiction. AlthoughCracked Actor has never received an official release, Pegg calls it "arguably the finest documentary made about David Bowie".[35]
According to Kevin Cann and Chris O'Leary:[24][1]
Production
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